Very sad reading

The NHS is not a good employer because it has too little money and too many incompetent administrators.

I speak as someone who has worked in the service and whose OH has done so - it is a nightmare of paperwork, long hours of voluntary input for no money, assessing and re-assessing. Most doctors are very fed up indeed. I have just changed GPs as the one I had is so burnt out and cynical.

And, as a previous poster has pointed out, the nursing and ancillary staff are in the same boat with even less to show for it salary-wise.

No organisation can run on the goodwill of its staff to work for nothing.

It exasperates me when doctors do so much work but get so little appreciation. I am clear that the system in the 60s and 70s, although it meant a lot of hard work for juniors in particular, was a better one as staff were all working to the same aim - to give the best patient care. Now their task is to fill in as many form as they can and to meet targets.

The sheer cynicism of targets with their implication of lack of dedication and professionalism makes my blood boil.

That quote was in reference to Thatcher's proposal to base Child Benefit on need rather than it being an automatic right, which met with a hostile reaction from her own party members.

Nothing to do with the NHS...

Sorry loopy, the NHS's condition will worsen, particularly if GO becomes PM.

Remember Thatcher's words, "Let the NHS wither on the vine."
Her words are fast becoming reality.

RIP NHS

Henry Marsh's book is fascinating but depressing, particularly his stories of scouring the hospital to find beds and being checked up on by a manager disguised as a nurse!

One of DD's friends was a doctor. She ended up taking her NHS trust to court, where they concocted an incredible web of untruths about her. The Judge told them they were bound to lose but they persisted and she won a very large amount. Their attitude had cost the NHS a large amount of money that could have been better spent elsewhere and lost them the services of a very good doctor.

This is very emotive, but I think it is not like this for all doctors, apart from the job description and relationship with patients and their families, which any doctor should know about.

We have young friends who work for the NHS, one travelling a long distance, the other close to home to be there for the children.
The one close to home is the father.
They are younger than the doctor in the article but are both consultants now. I am not convinced that she could not be a consultant at the age of 40 unless she is not capable of promotion.

This is the experience of one person and it is not typical imo.

It sounds as if the person in the article does not have the support of a good partner, which she will need if she is to work in any demanding job and to bring up a family. Women just cannot do it all. Neither could a man I am sure.

lucky Re doctors' salaries -I think also most people don't realise the cost of postgraduate exams, indemnity insurance etc either.

Whilst I am sure most of us are very grateful for the NHS, we should not lose sight of the fact that many NHS trusts are abysmal employers, exploiting NHS workers' professionalism and dedication.
I wish someone would sue one of them for constructive dismissal because I am sure that other employers would not get away with imposing such terms and conditions on employees like this.

Don't knock this poor lady - she started out with high ideals, then found she was trying to put them into practice in a creaking system, where she cannot practice to the standard that she would wish.

Has anyone read Henry marsh's book "do no harm". In it he says that in his opinion when the junior doctors hours were reduced he felt that they didn't feel better because of more sleep but in fact felt worse because they were losing out on the camaraderie of working those long hours and of the experience that they got as a result.

Barring the cutting off a leg, I have done those things and did it for a pittance. When I started nursing I would have done it for free if someone would have fed me.

Did someone force her to be a doctor?

"I have physically removed excrement from someone who needed that help. I have cut off people’s legs. I have told people that the most important person in the world to them is dying. I have told people that they are dying. I have told a woman her child may not survive."

What did she think being a surgeon would involve?

There is a misconception that doctors are overpaid - they are not. These are the sort of hours they work as described above, and their hourly rate is a pittance.

My OH was a doctor, and oh how I empathise with this poor lady. What a waste of her talent and dedication. But no-one in government is listening.

The toll on family is indescribable - I should know. My OH burned out at about the age of 40, and 2 years later he left. He went on to do locums that he could fit round the family.

The new contract is a nonsense and gives more money to doctors in relatively "easy" specialties like dermatology, and less to those like A&E staff who work uncountable unsocial hours. How mad is that?

Nor me. Our doctors and nurses are some of the most needed and valuable people in our society and they're being treated as if they are worthless, disposable, of no value. Very worrying and so very sad that this is being done to them.